Objectives & Prerequisites

It is recommended that a 2PXE POC be conducted in a test lab environment. If a test lab is unavailable, a POC can be executed in a production environment with minimal risk, but it should be limited to specific subnets from which you want clients to boot.

The objective for a 2PXE POC is to demonstrate how 2PXE can provide iPXE boot services to network clients.

It’s important that the POC is driven from clear requirements. These requirements should be clearly defined and include test plans for validation.

Prerequisites

We recommend that all testing of 2Pint Software components should be installed and verified in a separate lab environment before implemented in a production environment. Once tested and verified in the lab, in can then be tested in the production environment. If a test lab is unavailable, the POC can be executed in a production environment in a controlled manner.

Review the following page prior to installing 2PXE:

• Planning Your Implementation

The PXE protocol is a broadcast based network protocol. On any given subnet, it is important that only one PXE server should be servicing clients which attempt to PXE boot.

Lab Testing Environment

A lab environment is typically the best environment to test 2PXE. If possible, the server in which you plan on installing the 2PXE service should be on the same subnet in which you plan to PXE boot clients. The reason for this is because PXE is a broadcast based protocol which is not routable. For PXE booting clients to reach a PXE server on another subnet, IP Helpers have to be added to your router configuration, or DHCP Scope Options must be added to your DHCP scope to redirect clients to the IP of the PXE server.

All major Virtual Platforms such as Hyper-V and VMWare will support PXE booting clients, but using physical client hardware which represents the makes and models of hardware you support, will be a far more conclusive test.

Production Testing Environment

It is possible to test 2PXE in a production environment, but as mentioned above, it is important to only test on subnets which will not be impacted by installing a new PXE server.